Propagation and Nursery Management for Production of Quality Planting Material (13th November to 22nd November, 2017)

National Conference on "Fruit Breeding in Tropics and Subtropics - An Indian Perspective" National Conference on "Fruit Breeding in Tropics and Subtropics - An Indian Perspective" Fruit breeding has seen a paradigm shift from the conventional methods viz., introduction, selection, hybridization and mutation to next generation high throughput sequencing. Research in breeding of fruit crops encompassing a wide array of unique questions cannot be extrapulated based on the results of Arabidopsis. Availability of valuable germplasm is a prerequisite for crop improvement.There is an urgent need for conservation and evaluation of indigenous varieties in various fruit crops. On-form conservation & recognising the farmers who conserve native germplasm as 'custodians of genetic diversity' is a welcome trend. Fruit breeders have been attracted to use the molecular technology as a complimentary tool to the conventional breeding. Resistance breeding and dev...

A new whole pod edible dual purpose Pea variety Arka Apoorva A new whole pod edible dual purpose Pea variety Arka Apoorva Garden pea (Pisum sativum L. var. hortense) also called sweet pea is a choice vegetable grown for its shelled green seeds rich in protein (7.2 %). In India, it is grown in an area of 0.35 million ha. with the production of 2.91 million metric tonnes and productivity is 8.31 t/ha. In garden peas, though whole mature fresh pods are purchased by the consumer, the fibrous pod walls are discarded and only the shelled fresh the fresh green seeds are consumed. Thus, only 55 to 60 % being the fresh seeds are used as vegetable, while around 40 to 45% goes as waste in the form of pod walls. This problem wastage is overcome in whole pod edible peas which are grouped under var. macrocarpon. In the whole pod edible peas, entire pods are consumed since the pod walls are devoid of fibrous parchment layer. The pods of whole pod peas can be consumed at any point of time du...

Inauguration of Retail Outlet of Puthari Farmers Producer Company Limited at KVK Gonikoppal, Kodagu           The Retail outlet of Puthari Farmers Producer Company Limited was inaugurated in KVK Gonikoppal office premises on 5 th   December, 2017 by Shri M.C. Nanaiah, the Assistant General Manager of NABARD, Kodagu district. Other Guests present on the occasion were Shri Kurubur Shanthakumar, Chairman, Raith Mitra Farmer Producer Company Ltd, Mysore, Shri Mr. Bharath Kumar, MD, Econut FPCL, Hunsur and several members and Board of Directors of Puthari FPCL, Gonikoppal. The purpose of the retail outlet is to provide farmer members with quality farm and estate inputs like Dolomite, coffee picking mats, shade nets, small farm equipments like harvesters, organic inputs, chemicals and fertilisers at a very competitive rate so as to reduce the cost of cultivation for farmers with technical advice from KVK. The company has tied up with many reputed f...

Field Day on Tomato and Frenchbean by ICAR-KVK, Hirehalli, Tumakuru Language  English A field day on Tomato (ArkaSamrat) and Frenchbean (ArkaSuvidha) was organised by ICAR-KVK, Hirehalli, Tumakuru at Durgadahalli and Sethupalaya villages of Tumakuru District on 12 th  Dec 2017. Dr.T Sadashiva, Head, Division of Vegetable crops, ICAR-IIHR, Dr T S Aghora, Principal Scientist and Dr T H Singh, Principal Scientist, Division of Vegetable crops took part in the event as experts.  The Tomato – ArkaSamrat variety was grown by the farmer Shri.ChikkaNagayya in one acre plot.  He adopted poly mulching technologies and followed all the recommended practices advocated by KVK staff. The growth of the crop and bearing of fruits were superior to the condition of other private varieties grown by nearby farmers. Dr Sadashiva advised the farmers to take up seed production activities in support with ICAR-IIHR and ICAR-KVK. Later in the day, another successful front lin...

ICAR-IIHR participated in Kisan Mela organised by Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Samastipur, Bihar Language  English ICAR-IIHR participated in the Kisan Mela exhibition organised by by Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, during 03 to 05 Dec 2017 at their campus in Samastipur, Bihar. Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh inaugurated the Kisan Mela-cum-Krishi Shiksha Diwas at Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University, Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar in the august presence of Deputy Director General (Extn.) Dr. A.K. Singh, Vice Chancellor of DrRPCAU Dr. R. C. Srivastava and several other distinguished guests. During the three-day Kisan Mela on the theme “Integrated Farming System Approach for Mitigating Climate Change Impact”, stalls were put up by different organisations to give information to the farmers about new techniques and researches made in the field of farming. Selected technologies of ICAR-...

Arka Fermented Cocopeat – Makes an Entry into the Nursery Hub of India The Kadiyam Mandal of East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh, spread over eleven villages occupying an area of 3500 acres is often touted as the nursery hub of India owing to the presence of a large number of ornamental and fruit nurseries. The nursery entrepreneurship provides employment to over 20,000 residents from nearby villages and other places. The planting material produced in this Mandal is known all over India for their quality and variety. From the year 2011, big nursery farmers from this region started exporting nursery plants to Middle East nations, thereby making a mark in the international arena. But commensurate to the expansion of the nursery entrepreneurship, the region has been facing the loss of precious top soil, which is  a major input in the production of the nursery potting media.  Alarmed by this situation the Department of Horticulture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh requested...

           \ An environmentally-safe technology (Arka Saka Nivaraka) for prevention of spongy tissue in Alphonso mango Arka Saka Nivaraka’ - an environmentally-safe technology for prevention of spongy tissue in Alphonso mango Spongy tissue disorder of Alphonso mango has been plaguing both domestic and export marketing. Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru, for the first time in the world, developed an environmentally-safe formulation ‘Arka Saka Nivarak’ for prevention of spongy tissue. The invention is a result of systematic basic and strategic research efforts spread over 15 years since 1998 of Dr. V. Ravindra, Principal Scientist, Division of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry and his team. “Arka Saka Nivaraka’ liquid formulation needs to be applied twice at pre-harvest stage between 40 to 60 per cent maturity, either by dipping the fruits (while on the tree) in solution or by spray on the fruits, @ 100 to 125ml/ lit...

Okra F1 Hybrid - Arka Nikita Arka Nikita    (F 1  Hybrid):     It is a hybrid between    GMS-4 X IIIHR-299- 14-11-585,  has been identified for release by the Institute VTIC during 2017. It is developed through geneic male sterile line    Early flowering, it takes 39 days for the first flower appearance and 43 days for first picking of fruits. Produces dark green, medium, smooth and     tender fruits. Excellent cooking quality, nutritionally rich in antioxidant activity, high mucilage content(1.08 % (FW) and high edible fiber content (8.85 % (DW) . It is rich in minerals like potassium (3.7 %), calcium 997 mg /100 g)and magnesium . Rich in iodine content (33.31µ g/kg).Yields 21-24 t/ha in 125 -130 days duration.                                                        ...

                                              Arka Rakshak: High yielding triple disease resistant tomato F1 hybrid with export potential, Arka Rakshak: High yielding triple disease resistant tomato F1 hybrid with export potential Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is the second most important vegetable crop in India next only to potato. In India, it is cultivated over an area of 8.79 lakh hectares with a production of 182.26 lakh tonnes. The average productivity is about 20.7 tonnes per hectare. Andra Pradesh, Odissa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhatishgarh and Gujarat are the major tomato-growing states in India. In recent years the occurrence of major diseases such as Tomato leaf curl virus (ToLCV), bacterial wilt (BW) and early blight (EB) have become very serious causing considerable yield loss in major tomato growing areas of the cou...

Five Trends in Horticulture Technology Editor’s Note:  James Sulecki is corporate content director of Meister Media Worldwide. Ahead of the  PrecisionAg Vision Conference  in Phoenix, Arizona next month, he writes about five key trends the media company is seeing in horticulture technology for the fruit and vegetable industry. When precision agriculture first erupted in the 1990s, it was targeted primarily to producers of Midwestern row crops, especially corn, soybean, sugar beets, and wheat. When someone said “precision,” most people heard “field mapping, variable rate application, yield monitoring” – solutions that were often big-iron and nearly always big-dollar, and were aimed at reducing input costs and farmers’ environmental footprint. Small-acre horticultural crops generally need not apply. But the ongoing digitization of the farm is exploding long-held assumptions. When data scientists at companies like Climate Corporation jump into agriculture an...

style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #111111; font-family: Roboto, "trebuchet ms", arial; font-size: 34px; font-stretch: normal; letter-spacing: -0.5px; line-height: 34px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-break: break-word;"3469580404800718> Organic Farming Methods No matter how much a man progresses, agriculture is an occupation that was, is and will always be undertaken since it suffices one of the most important basic needs of the population – Food. Hence, technology is added in this field to find ways to increase agricultural production in order to feed the ever growing demand for food due to the drastic increase in population. Therefore, many new ways and methods are being introduced in this field to harvest and cultivate the best quality crops. Organic farming can be explained as an agricultural method wherein the following techniques are used: Crop Rotation:  A technique to grow var...